A strong defensive display earned Brown its first Ivy League victory with a 1-0 win Saturday against Cornell in Ithaca.
The Bears (4-6-3, Ivy 1-1-2 ) held strong against a constant offensive barrage from the Big Red (6-4-4, 0-3-1) to extend Cornell’s winless streak to six games. The win — Bruno’s first away victory of the season — ties the team for fifth in the Ivy League standings with three league games remaining.
“We’ve obviously had some trouble when we play away from Stevenson (Field),” said co-captain Jack Kuntz ’14. “That’s part of being a young team. But it was definitely awesome to win at Cornell on their Alumni Weekend.”
Bruno found itself on the defensive early, facing multiple corner kicks in the opening minutes. Co-captain goalkeeper Josh Weiner ’14 made four saves to keep the score level after the Big Red outshot the Bears 10-4 in the first half.
The Bears broke the deadlock with just one minute remaining in the half. Daniel Taylor ’15 collected the ball on the wing and sent in a curving cross to the back post. The ball flew over three Cornell defenders to Tariq Akeel ’16, who headed the ball into the bottom-right of the net to put Brown up 1-0.
“We had a lot of success when we attacked with our wide midfielders,” Kuntz said. “We were able to take advantage of the width and get some good service.”
The Big Red continued to threaten the Bears’ defense in the second half, firing an impressive 15 shots to Bruno’s one. Weiner made five saves in the half and was aided by multiple blocks from the Bears’ backline.
“Our defense did a good job of making it difficult for Cornell to take good shots,” Kuntz said. “And our goalie Josh (Weiner) came up with a couple (of) huge saves.”
Despite the continuous pressure, the Big Red could not break though the Brown defense, and Bruno walked away with a 1-0 shutout win.
The Bears face Boston College (6-6-2, ACC 3-5-1) in a midweek matchup at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on Stevenson Field. The Eagles are Bruno’s first Atlantic Coast Conference opponent of the season.
“The ACC is always playing good soccer, so I think we’ll see a little more finesse from Boston College than we did against Cornell,” Kuntz said. “It will be a different type of test for us.”
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